Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Creative Revolution {September '10}

My friend Karen says, "Art is natural to the human condition."
And furthermore ...Creativity is natural to the human conditionLet's just say that. Out loud. Yep, right now.

You may not be quite ready yet to claim "I am creative." There is no sense in forcing yourself to say something that you don't believe. Yet.

Creativity is something you need to foster. You just really need to be brave. You are probably already being creative but not giving yourself credit.Creativity is just like a muscle: use it and build it up.Creativity has really nothing to do with talent. I'm not sure what the heck "talent" is. I think it may be desire. Here is a piece of an email I received from a new facebook friend:

"I have absolutely no experience in art. When I was about 8 or so I begged to go to an art day camp and it was disastrous. The teacher told me I'd never be an artist because I couldn't "get" perspective, ... etc. I was 8! I've always been easily discouraged and painfully sensitive to criticism ... . I'm 59 years old now and finally jumping in. I've always felt as if I've been deprived of something very special--like I got all the desire to be creative, but none of the talent. But, now I do have a lot of confidence. I know that I can do it as long as I take things slowly and stop each day before I get frustrated."Thank you Xylia for sharing this with me.

Xylia's words spoke so triumphantly to me. How about you? My life path was not strewn with roses, I had to win back my innate creativity. This is why I blog and teach. To support your own quest to reclaim your creativity.

So right here, right now I'm startin' the

Creative Revolution

I'm not completely sure what kind of path this will take yet. For the moment, once a month, on or about the 15th, I will set out an idea. It could be anything: a simple journal entry (see below), a recipe prompt, a nudge to be more creative when you get dressed in the morning. These nudges will be simple, 5-minute (or more, if you'd like). They will be something that can very easily be incorporated into your day.

I'll set up a Flickr group for you to respond to these prompts (as soon as I can figure out a good name for the group, any ideas?).

Here is the first Nudge: a journal prompt:

Take a handful of fabric or paper scraps, a glue stick or double stick tape and your journal.

Play and arrange and then, here's the scary part: stick 'em down.

That's it. Go on! What are you waiting for? Stand up, walk away from the computer. If you

are at work, take 5 and scoot around, look for paper scraps, paperclip them together and get

27 comments:

What a great idea!!Thank you for thinking of this...I really do need a nudge and you have nudged me...soooo...I will give this a try. For me it's a confidence thing. I love creating and sometimes I feel very bold but other times just full of doubt.Ok so I am going to layer some scraps of fabric on a journal and see where it takes me.

I love a good revolution, and how great to be a tiny spark of the impetus for this one. Just last night I finished my first art journal, so this prompt will be the perfect thing to get me going on my next project. Thanks for all you do to inspire!

This is the perfect plan. Just what I needed. I ordered my book for the sketchbook project and my theme is .....in 5 minutes. Was a bit worried, but feel much better now. Thanks for the "quicky" collect and go idea. It sure will help.

I have put the Nudge Bug into action on my Blog!! I made what I call a Scrappy Happy journal cover with scraps I have been saving for awhile now.I told my followers about your Creative Revolution and to try making something for themselves from scraps of fabric or paper onto a journal. I also added a link back here toyou!! I figure the more CreativeRevolutionarys the better!

Diana....I am so glad I found this while surfing blogs this morning. I haven't opened a journal, any of them in over a month. Today I did Nudge #1. You can check it out on my blog at www.journalmw.blogspot.com I will take a look at flickr but I don't know if I can upload there. I will try.Nudge #2 won't be too bad for me as I always have my camera with me, but I need to read up on #3 and give that a shot.

I just foudn this page and it's exactly what I've been looking for! I'm just starting into experimenting with art other than my 'professional' 'gallery' stuff. I can't wait to start working on this! I'v always wanted to do a collage with scrap material!

I am so happy that I found this post today. I have been playing with the idea of starting an art journal and this was the perfect prompt to push me in the right direction. AND it was fun! What more could you ask for??

Hi,This is great and these nudges are great too, but I had an idea for one, to put some some music on, any song and go with the flow, if it has a fast beat, do something quickly, if it has a slow beat, take your time and so on.